Course Textbook:

Goldstein, E.B. (2017) Sensation and Perception. 10th edition. California: Cengage.

This forum should be 400 words.

By now you've probably noticed in your assigned readings that the study of sensation and perception focuses on things you may have experienced but never given any thought to--for example, the "Purkinje shift". We don't think much about these phenomena because our world is full of them, and if we had to be conscious of every sensation and its accompanying perception that we ever experienced our brains would have little time for anything else (!) but research scientists have studied them in detail.

This leaves us with the question--do these interesting and sometimes odd things matter? The answer is yes, but why and how varies depending on the particular phenomenon. Because there are real-life phenomena associated with everything discussed in our readings and dialoguing about them can bring theory and fact to life, for the remainder of our forum assignments we will be doing the following:

In the initial forum post, please describe how one of the phenomena mentioned in the readings *Presbycusis*
explains an everyday event that you have experienced or observed and then suggest how this phenomenon might have serious consequences (so first its everyday occurrence and impact and then ways in which it can have serious impact).

For the purpose of this assignment, we will define "serious impact" as something that has negative consequences to health and safety of the self or others rather than something that is inconvenient or embarrassing. Not being able to distinguish colors under certain light may lead to getting home after a shopping trip only to find out an outfit isn't the color you thought it was, which can be inconvenient and/or embarrassing. Not being able to distinguish colors under certain war zone conditions can be safety and life threatening.

Please be specific, thorough and concrete. Adding onto the end of a post a statement or two that something could be a problem is not sufficient. Additionally, saying you don't know of any negative consequences isn't permitted. Doing so will void your forum assignment points. You will need to explain how the phenomenon specifically has a negative impact. An example, described in Nicholas Wade's 2000 "The Natural History of Vision" is below (NOTE: Because this one has already been applied, you must select another).

Unless discussing one of the more common disorders, like a lack of depth perception or hearing loss, please avoid "I think I have this" syndrome. This is something that medical students often fall prey to in the early years of medical school because they spend so much time studying human disorders, from the very common to the exceedingly rare.

Please start each weekly initial forum with "____" and then give a brief description of the physiology of the phenomenon (don't dwell here--we can all read the details in course readings--just provide enough so we understand what happens with the phenomenon) and describe your everyday example of the occurrence of the phenomenon and how it could have serious consequences. The phenomenon can be one occurring in persons not suffering any pathology (like the example below--pretty much everybody experiences what happens to our ability to differentiate colors and their brightness around dusk...it's not abnormal at all) or it can be the result of a disorder or injury. And of course, the phenomenon won't always be about vision.

Finally, while it's expected that more than one person might pick the same phenomenon -- we have lots of them to work with but the number is not infinite -- if you repeatedly only select what others have already done or your initial forum essentially replicates the work of what another student has posted, points will not be assigned and a pattern of doing so will void your forum points, as will a pattern of posting work that isn't instructions compliant.

This week's example: In the 1800s, Mathia Plotz was painting a military portrait and noted that some features of the uniform appeared to change colors and the colors became less distinguishable from one another toward dusk. Plotz had experienced something called the "Purkinje Effect" in which the ability to distinguish brightness of colors, particularly red and blue, diminishes as the colors darken. Toward dusk there would be less light and the colors of the uniforms of Plotz's portrait subjects would grow less distinct as the light around him darkened near the end of the day.

Being able to distinguish uniform colors may only impact Plotz's ability to produce accurate and attractive portraits (he either needed to paint in better light or be able to lay down paint in ways that accurately captured the subdued, murkiness of the dusk viewing experience--if you've ever seen an artist attempt to paint an evening scene and fail because the color selections and contrasts weren't right, you know what is meant here is that paintings are supposed to, but don't always successfully, replicate an evening versus bright light of day viewing experience via color brightness and contrast), something that might affect his livelihood, but trouble seeing uniform colors and distinguishing uniforms from other objects in one's world also could have very serious implications! You may find it difficult to see an enemy soldier in hiding toward dusk or you may have trouble telling enemies from friendlies during a dusk raid or battle.

References

General Instructions Applicable to All Forums:

This post must be a minimum of 400 words in length.

Copying of published material, which is plagiarism, is prohibited and any instances of it, including forum posts, will result in a zero score without an option for re-submission to recoup lost points and a report sent to the Registrar's Office per University policy.

Discussion forum posts will be graded on verbal expression, critical thinking, making an effort to not just participate in but contribute to the dialog with initial and reply posts of a substantive nature commensurate with graduate level studies. Posts must have correct grammatical construction, spelling, and punctuation with no texting or other casual style language.